Department of Psychology

Jim Persinger, Ph.D., Department Chair and Professor

Dr. Jim Persinger, Professor, joined The Teachers College faculty in 2000. Having attended Emporia State University in the 1980s as both an undergraduate (BS - Psychology) and graduate (MS - Experimental Psychology), he continued his education at the University of Kansas (EdS School Psychology; PhD School Psychology, minor in Counseling) while working in the public schools.

In addition to his primary role of school psychologist, Dr. Persinger worked as preschool coordinator, autism teacher (unlicensed: KSDE waiver), and chair of Infant Toddler Services Network of Riley County. He has continuously served for nearly two decades as a reviewer for the Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research, and on the board of the Kansas Association of School Psychologists, including as President in 2008. He serves on the executive board of the Greater Kansas City Chapter of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN), and is the current Kansas Delegate to the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP).

Dr. Persinger also served in varying capacities on the boards of the Infant Toddler Services Network of Riley County, and the Association for Psychological and Educational Research in Kansas, of which he was President in 2004. He maintains memberships in NASP, KASP, TSP (institutional), CEC, CEDS, KASEA, and PERK.

He has served as a development consultant for Special Olympics, and assisted with standardization of the Stanford-Binet V Intelligence Scales, Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (3rd), Bender-Gestalt (revised), Social Skills Improvement System Rating Scales, Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning (4th), and Oral and Written Language Scales (2nd).

He has been the reviewer for a dozen textbooks, at stages ranging from prospectus through revision. Since his arrival at Emporia State University, Dr. Persinger has provided pro bono evaluations for Emporia State students needing disability determination/documentation, and serves as consultant to the Disability Services Office. Dr. Persinger regularly presents to public school faculty, as well as state and national conferences, on topics as diverse as non-stereotypical self-injurious behavior, school-crisis response, proactive mental-health programs, sociometric approaches to social-emotional screening, compassion as a resilience construct, and impact of school climate and gay-straight alliances on LGBT youth. He is a NASP-certified PREPaRE crisis response Trainer of Trainers and GLSEN-certified Trainer-of-Trainers.Additional personal and professional information are here.